A cookie is a small file a website asks your browser to keep, so that something can be remembered between one page and the next. This site is a set of pages about rooflights. It does not sell anything, does not run advertising and does not need to know who you are, so what it stores is limited to what makes the site work and what tells us which pages people find useful.
What a cookie actually is
A small piece of stored text.
A website asks your browser to keep a short string of characters, and your browser sends it back the next time you visit, which is how a site remembers anything at all.
Why sites use them
Because pages have no memory.
Each page you request is a separate conversation, so anything that has to persist between pages, such as a preference, has to be stored somewhere.
Essential cookies
The ones the site cannot work without.
These handle basic operation and security, such as remembering that you have made a choice about cookies, and they are set because the site could not function otherwise.
Why you are not asked about those
Because there is no choice to offer.
A cookie that is strictly necessary for a service you asked for does not require consent, and switching it off would mean the page could not be delivered.
Analytics
Used only if you agree to it.
Where analytics is running, it counts page visits so we know which pages are read and which are not, and it is not set unless you have consented.
What analytics tells us
Which pages are useful.
A site of this size is written on the assumption that people arrive with specific questions, and knowing which questions are actually asked is what tells us where to write more.
What it does not tell us
Who you are.
We do not attempt to identify individual visitors, and nothing collected in this way is connected to an enquiry or to a customer record.
Advertising
None, and no tracking for it. This site carries no advertising and sets no advertising or retargeting cookies, so nothing here follows you to another website.
Social media
No embedded trackers.
There are no social sharing widgets or embedded feeds on these pages, which are a common route by which third parties set cookies on a site that has none of its own.
Embedded content
Kept to a minimum for the same reason.
Where anything is embedded from elsewhere, that provider may set its own cookies, and we avoid embedding where it can reasonably be avoided.
Your choice
Made once and remembered. Where consent is required you are asked, and the answer is stored so you are not asked again on every page, which is itself the reason for one of the essential cookies.
Changing your mind
Clear the site data in your browser.
Removing the stored choice means you will be asked again, and any analytics cookie set under a previous consent is removed at the same time.
Controlling cookies generally
Your browser decides, not us. Every browser has settings to block or delete cookies, and those settings override anything a website would prefer.
What blocking them does here
Very little. Because this site is a set of pages rather than an application, blocking cookies leaves it working normally, which is not true of every site.
Local storage
Mentioned because it is not technically a cookie.
Browsers offer other ways to store small amounts of data, and anything the site keeps that way is covered by the same reasoning and the same choice.
Server logs
Separate from cookies, and worth knowing about.
Web servers record requests, including an address and a time, as a matter of course for security and diagnostics, and that happens whether or not any cookie is set.
How long they last
Varies by purpose. A cookie remembering a choice lasts long enough to be useful. A session cookie disappears when you close the browser.
Cookies and personal information
Two different things, often confused. What we hold because you contacted us is a separate matter, and it is set out on the privacy policy page.
Sending us an enquiry
Not a cookie question at all.
Anything you type into a form or send by email reaches us directly, and how that is handled is covered by the privacy policy rather than by this page.
If you would rather not be counted
Decline, and nothing changes. The site works identically, and the only consequence is that we know slightly less about which pages are read.
Why this page is short on lists
Because a list of cookie names ages badly.
Naming individual cookies in a policy produces a document that is out of date within months, and describing what is stored and why stays accurate.
What changes if we add something
This page changes first. If the site ever needs a new category of storage, this page is updated and, where consent is required, you are asked before anything is set.
Do not track
Respected where it is sent. A browser signalling that it does not wish to be tracked is a clear enough statement, and there is no analytics on this site worth overriding it for.
Questions about this
Ask, and we will answer specifically. If you want to know exactly what is set when you load a page, that is a reasonable question and the details are on the contact page.
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